The present invention relates generally to the field of computer system graphical user interfaces, and more particularly to a graphical user interface that enables direct manipulation of a time scale for the presentation of time-dependent information.
Information is typically presented in graphical or chart form. People are able to recognize relationships between different types of information or see trends in information easily when they view charts or graphs. Examples of charts and graphs, such as pie charts, bar graphs or histograms, and line graphs, are well known.
Time-dependent information is very often presented graphically in X-Y form. Usually, the X-axis represents a time scale and the X-axis represents a numerical value associated with the information. The time scale is presented in units such as years, months, days, hours, etc. The time-dependent information may be temperatures observed at particular times, the Dow Jones averages at particular times, or any other information that changes over time. Another common form of time-dependent information is project task start and finish times, which may be represented by horizontal bars on a Gantt chart.
There are a number of software applications that provide graphical displays of time-dependent information. Examples of such applications include financial and project management products. The applications may be standalone installed on a single machine, or networked running in a client-server environment, or even Web-based.
Computer displays of time-dependent information are generally static, in which the time scale is fixed. Time scales that are based on long time units, such as years, illustrate long-term trends, but they hide details of short term events. Conversely, time scales that are based on short time units, such as hours, illustrate short term events and fluctuations, but they may show trends in the information.